Granted Patent B2

US 8,335,898 · App. 13/465,892 · Granted Dec 18, 2012

Abstract

Claims (32)

1. A method of operating a data control system to transfer a de-duplicated volume of data from a primary storage system to a secondary storage system, the method comprising:

receiving an instruction to transfer the de-duplicated volume of data, wherein the de-duplicated volume of data comprises a plurality of data blocks;

in response to the instruction, determining whether each of the plurality of data blocks is allocated or unallocated;

for each data block of the plurality of data blocks determined to be allocated, reading the data block from memory in the primary storage system and transferring the data block for storage in the secondary storage system; and

for each data block of the plurality of data blocks determined to be unallocated, refraining from reading the data block from memory in the primary storage system.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, for each data block of the plurality of data blocks determined to be unallocated, transferring a synthetic block for writing to the memory in the secondary storage system.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising reading the synthetic block from a synthetic buffer.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the synthetic block comprises synthetic information, wherein the secondary storage system processes the synthetic information to generate synthetic data, wherein the synthetic data is written to the memory of the secondary storage system.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing status information indicating a status of each of the plurality of data blocks, wherein the status comprises either allocated or unallocated.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the status information comprises a block bitmap.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the de-duplicated volume of data comprises at least a portion of a virtual machine.

8. One or more non-transitory computer readable media having stored thereon instructions executable by a processing system to transfer a de-duplicated volume of data from a primary storage system to a secondary storage system that, when executed by the processing system, direct the processing system to at least:

receive an instruction to transfer the de-duplicated volume of data, wherein the de-duplicated volume of data comprises a plurality of data blocks;

in response to the instruction, determine whether each of the plurality of data blocks is allocated or unallocated;

for each data block of the plurality of data blocks determined to be allocated, read the data block from memory in the primary storage system and transfer the data block for storage in the secondary storage system; and

for each data block of the plurality of data blocks determined to be unallocated, refrain from reading the data block from memory in the primary storage system.

9. The one or more computer readable media of claim 8 wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing system, further direct the processing system to, for each data block of the plurality of data blocks determined to be unallocated, transfer a synthetic block for writing to the memory in the secondary storage system.

10. The one or more computer readable media of claim 9 wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing system, further direct the processing system to read the synthetic block from a synthetic buffer.

11. The one or more computer readable media of claim 10 wherein the synthetic block comprises synthetic information, wherein the secondary storage system processes the synthetic information to generate synthetic data, wherein the synthetic data is written to the memory of the secondary storage system.

12. The one or more computer readable media of claim 8 wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing system, further direct the processing system to store status information indicating a status of each of the plurality of data blocks, wherein the status comprises either allocated or unallocated.

13. The one or more computer readable media of claim 12 wherein the status information comprises a block bitmap.

14. The one or more computer readable media of claim 8 wherein the de-duplicated volume of data comprises at least a portion of a virtual machine.

15. A method of operating a data control system to transfer a virtual disk from a primary storage system to a secondary storage system, the method comprising:

receiving an instruction to transfer the virtual disk, wherein the virtual disk comprises a plurality of data blocks;

in response to the instruction, determining whether each of the plurality of data blocks is allocated or unallocated;

for each data block of the plurality of data blocks determined to be allocated, reading the data block from memory in the primary storage system and transferring the data block for storage in the secondary storage system; and

for each data block of the plurality of data blocks determined to be unallocated, refraining from reading the data block from memory in the primary storage system.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising, for each data block of the plurality of data blocks determined to be unallocated, transferring a synthetic block for writing to the memory in the secondary storage system.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising reading the synthetic block from a synthetic buffer.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the synthetic block comprises synthetic information, wherein the secondary storage system processes the synthetic information to generate synthetic data, wherein the synthetic data is written to the memory of the secondary storage system.

19. The method of claim 15 further comprising storing block bitmap indicating a status of each of the plurality of data blocks, wherein the status comprises either allocated or unallocated.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the virtual disk comprises a de-duplicated virtual disk file containing a virtual machine.

Assignments (12)